Serial Charge Transfer Efficiency in ACS/WFC

TL;DR

This study characterizes the serial charge transfer efficiency (CTE) in ACS/WFC, revealing its impact on photometry and centroids, and updates correction algorithms to improve data quality.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of serial CTE in ACS/WFC and updates correction methods to account for serial charge trapping effects.

Findings

Serial CTE trails are sharper and longer than parallel trails.

Serial CTE causes photometric losses of 0.005-0.02 mag.

Serial CTE shifts stellar centroids by 0.01-0.035 pixels.

Abstract

We present a dedicated study of CCD serial ($x$-direction) charge transfer efficiency (CTE) in ACS/WFC. Following past studies of parallel ($y$-direction) CTE, we use the serial CTE trails behind hot pixels in calibration dark frames to characterize charge trapping and release in the serial registers of the WFC detectors. Serial CTE trails are sharper and longer than parallel CTE trails. Many fewer charge traps come into play during serial pixel transfers than parallel transfers, which explains why parallel CTE is much worse than serial CTE. We find that serial CTE can cause losses of $\sim$0.005-0.02~mag in stellar photometry and shift stellar centroids by $\sim$0.01-0.035 pixels. The pixel-based algorithm in CALACS that corrects for parallel CTE losses in WFC data has been modified to include a correction for serial CTE losses. The PCTETAB reference file has also been updated to include serial CTE parameters. The pixel-based correction for serial CTE currently runs only on full-frame WFC images obtained after SM4 (May 2009). Shortly following the publication of this report, science data corrected for both parallel and serial CTE will be available in the MAST archive.